A dense bottom water plume in the western Barents Sea: downstream modification and interannual variability

The generation and downstream modification of a cold dense Arctic shelf water plume were studied with moored current meters, thermistor chains and conductivity/temperature sensors deployed from August 1993 to September 1994 south of the Storfjord in the Svalbard Archipelago. These observations are compared to similar time series from 1991/92. In 1993/94, bottom water with temperatures close to the freezing point drained continuously from Storfjord between March and September with a mean speed of 0.14 m s−1. About 1.5 months after the plume front had left the Storfjord, it reached the shelf break, 150 km away. The plume had increased its width from 15 km to about 35 km, but its thickness of 50 m remained almost constant and it left the shelf edge at a similar speed. The increased volume transport and the change of temperature/salinity properties indicate an entrainment of 110% of ambient Atlantic water into the plume on its way from the production area to the shelf edge. ximum salinity of the cold plume was 0.2 lower in 1993/94 than in 1991/92, whilst the temperature/salinity-range of the surrounding Atlantic water remained unchanged. Probably as a dynamic consequence, the speed of the plume was considerably lower in 1993/94. The lower salinity of the plume in 1993/94 is a result of both the 30% less ice formation in Storfjord, caused by lower heat flux and less open water, and a lower surface salinity at the beginning of ice formation. During 1993/94, the Storfjord plume was too light to sink below 700 m.